1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to skylights. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device for closing off light from a skylight.
2. Prior Art
Skylights are a well known and much used device for letting sunlight into a building. In homes, they let in light to dispel gloom and add openness to a room. However, there may be times when a darkened room is desired. A bedroom with a skylight may let in too much light at night. The light might be from a bright moon street light or other sources, and disturb a persons sleep. Also, during cold weather while the ingress of sunlight may help heat the room, the skylight may also cause heat loss due to radiation at night. The same is true during hot weather, in the daytime, allowing sunlight in will increase the temperature in the room. For whatever reason, it may sometimes be desirable for a skylight to be blocked. This can be very difficult, since skylights are usually found in a ceiling and out of reach. Conventional shades would be useless since a ladder would be needed to reach them and a shade does not hang horizontally. A plug of some sort may be used to close the skylight, but this would again necessitate the us of a ladder to reach the skylight and make it very inconvenient.
A typical method of closing a skylight to light, is the use of louvers. These will satisfactorily prevent the entry of light when closed, but will not allow sunlight to enter satisfactorily. If the individual louvers are not angled at the same angle as the sunlight, they will cut off the light. Since the sun is continually moving across the sky, the louvers would have to be continually adjusted; rendering this type of shade impractical.
It would be highly advantageous, therefore, to remedy the foregoing and other deficiencies inherent in the prior art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved skylight shade.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an easily installed skylight shade.
And another object of the present invention is to provide an easily accessible skylight shade.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a skylight shade that may be opened or closed by light intensity.
Yet still another object of the present invention is to provide a skylight shade that prevents substantially all light from entering the skylight.
And yet still another object of the present invention is to provide a skylight shade which helps prevent heat exchange between the outdoors and the indoors.